


A Little R&R

by neighborhoodwitch



Series: Becoming The Future [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:08:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24888142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neighborhoodwitch/pseuds/neighborhoodwitch
Summary: Suki bullies the guys into having a spa night with her (no relationships yet)
Relationships: Sokka & Suki (Avatar), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Suki & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Becoming The Future [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799767
Comments: 7
Kudos: 86





	A Little R&R

**Author's Note:**

> you can obviously read this as a stand alone but it is part of a larger series i’m starting

They were in Zuko and Sokka’s dorm again spread out around the couch. Zuko was sitting politely on one end of the couch, the rest was taken up by Sokka who sprawled out with his head in his lap babbling about his last practice. She was laying on the floor under the coffee table, studying her chipped nail polish. “I’m not saying I don’t love you both, you’re great, but I miss having more girls around.

“Why do you need girls around when you have us? And anyways don’t you have all the people in your courses.” Sokka piped up, more concerned with Zuko messing up his hair than her complaining.

She rolled her eyes. “You know I don’t like any of them. And you guys don’t exactly want to do ‘girly’ things with me.” She wrinkled her nose as she said it. Personally she thought the guys could use a night of painting nails, watching movies, and snacking but she could already tell they wouldn’t agree. They still had to beg Zuko for him to come to dinner sometimes. 

“Can’t you ask your roommate?” Zuko asked jokingly, still trying to pull Sokka’s hair free of the ties and pins. She glared at him. “Okay sorry. What do you mean girly things? We did both grow up mostly surrounded by girls.” She knew he was right, but honestly she didn’t know enough about Zuko before college to know if he had done anything like this before.

She rolled onto her back and looked up at them. “Did your sisters ever make you do the self care spa nights? Cause once a month me and the girls from the dojo would get together and have one. I didn’t think I’d miss it but I do.”

Sokka groaned as soon as the words ‘spa night’ were out of her mouth. “Katara used to make me do those when she was really stressed. She would put on dumb movies and make me braid her hair.”

“You know how to braid?” Zuko asked suddenly.

Sokka looked at him like he was stupid. “How do you think my hair gets done? Magic?” He shook his head and looked back to Suki. “I can safely say I do not miss Katara’s special forms of torture, that being one of them. You might just have to play nice with the other dancers.”

She put on her best puppy dog eyes- which weren’t the best- and looked at Zuko. “Pleaseeeeeeeee.” She begged, hoping he would be less stubborn than Sokka. “I really miss it and it would make me so happy if you guys did one with me. Just this once.”

Zuko carefully avoided her gaze, already squirming under the pressure. He had a habit of stepping back to let Suki and Sokka fight over what they were doing. “Zuko say no. Don’t cave.” Sokka sat up and scooted so close he was practically in Zuko’s lap to block Suki’s puppy dog eyes, now coupled with a pout. “Don’t do it.”

“Zuko please. It would make me so happy to get to spend time with you.” She didn’t mention Sokka because she knew he wouldn’t come if he really didn’t want to.

Zuko let out a long sigh and Sokka knew that meant he failed because he collapsed back onto the couch. “Fine, but this is a one time thing. Just to make you feel better.”

She scrambled out from under the table with a smile and threw herself at him. He only tense a little when she hugged him before relaxing, they were making progress. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She exclaimed, squeezing his tight before letting go and standing up. “I’m going to go get my stuff together. I’ll be back in an hour or two.” As she was leaving she heard Sokka complain that Zuko was weak when it came to her. Then Zuko reminded him he was weak to Sokka too. She smiled the whole way back to her dorm.

\---

True to her word she was back at their door an hour and a half later, pushing it open with a basket of stuff in her arms. She wasn’t normally one to do this, but sometimes you just needed to pamper yourself and that she was a firm believer of. And if she wanted to paint her nails pink and have her hair braided she damn well would do it. 

The boys were on the couch with Xbox controllers in hand, screaming at each other over whatever game they were playing. Well Sokka was screaming, Zuko was smirking which meant he was winning. “Hey!” She called over the noise. “Gamers! Shut it down.” It distracted Sokka enough for Zuko to get the winning hit. Sokka’s heart broken screams and accusations of cheating were loud enough for the whole hall hear.

“Oh shut up, Waterboy. I won fair and square and now it's over.” Zuko put both the controllers back where they were supposed to go and turned everything off.

“I want a rematch!” Sokka protested from his place on the couch, he hadn’t seen what she brought yet. 

“That was your rematch.” Zuko said, eyeing the stuff she was laying out on the kitchen table. It was a small, rickety circle, with mismatched chairs cause they had found one on the side of the road to bring in for her. She was in their dorm more often than not anyways. “Suki… what did we get ourselves into?”

She watched with amusement as he picked up a bottle of black nail polish she set out. “Don’t tell me you’ve never painted your nails before.” He shook his head. “What? Haven’t you been in your emo phase your entire life.”

Sokka let out a sharp laugh and came over to look over her shoulder. “Yeah I’m not doing this.”

Zuko shook his head and put down the polish. “You have to. If I’m doing it you are too.”

Sokka shook his head. “No way, I didn’t agree to this. You agreed for us, I never said I would do it.” She turned around and crossed her arms across her chest.

“Are you really going to bail on me now? It’s already here.” He raised his chin and shook his head again. Fine. She would go back to pouting. “Please Sokka, it’s just this one time. I promise.” 

He broke even faster than Zuko had. “Fine. Just this once. What do we do?”   
  
She smiled and turned around, honestly excited to get to share this with them. “We used to pick a movie. Then get snacks ready and pick face masks. Then you just watch the movie, gossip, do each other's nails and hair, and eat.” 

Sokka narrowed his eyes at her, but eventually conceded that this was going to be happening. With a sigh he said, “What movies did you bring?”

“I brought my netflix password and my laptop. We can go from there.” She lead them over to the couch, pushed the table back, and set her computer up.”

“You have Netflix and haven’t been letting us piggyback off of it?” The offense was clear in Zuko’s voice as he sat down on the floor next to her. Sokka plopped down on the other side with the basket in his lap. “We are stealing it now.” 

She rolled her eyes, but before she could argue Sokka redirected the conversation. “So what snacks did you bring?” He was poking through the basket, tossing face masks and hair product onto the floor in front of him.

“Um,, whatever chips are in your pantry and then I brought some chocolate and stuff. We can also always order food on Zuko’s dime.” Her and Sokka high fived as Zuko let out a small ‘hey!’. “You would insist on paying anyways.” She said kindly and bumped his shoulder. He wasn’t the best at showing true affection, none of them were. Zuko had a hard time accepting physical affection, which made it hard for Sokka who could only show he cares through physical affection. He couldn’t vocalize it, she could vocalize how much she cared but was always too nervous to say it in case it messed things up. Not that she would ever admit it. 

He shrugged. “Yeah that's good enough for me. Now what do all these squishy packets do?”

She snatched it out of his hand. “These are the face masks, stupid. Some of them are sheet masks and some aren’t. You pick them depending on what your skin needs.” She gathered them all into a neat, colorful pile.

“Oh. How do I know what my skin needs?” This was another time she really missed having more girls around. They were both so fucking clueless sometimes. 

She sighed and fanned them out in one smooth movement, picking up a shiny blue packet. “This one is to hydrate your skin. So if you have dry skin, which I do, this would be good for you.” She watched Zuko touch his cheek, trying to figure out if his skin was dry or not. She picked up a black one next. “This is a charcoal mask, it dries on your skin and when you peel it off it will pull the stuff out of your pores.” She almost hit her head on the table when they both looked at her like she was speaking another language.

“Men.” She mumbled to herself. “Pore are little tiny holes all over your skin, everyone has them, and when stuff like dirt and makeup gets in there it will clog it up. That's how you get pimples.” They both nodded slowly.

“I never had to deal with pimples.” Sokka said, frowning.

At the same time her and Zuko responded, “I hate you.” but that only caused him to burst out laughing.

“Okay okay, which one should I use then oh wise one.” She took his face in one hand and leaned closer to him, his cheeks flushed pink, it made her smile.

“Hmm maybe a rejuvenating one. That might be good for you. Or brightening. You haven’t been getting enough sleep.” When Zuko asked what the rejuvenating one did exactly she sat back and shrugged. 

“I’m pretty sure it just helps promote the growth of new skin cells, smooth out any blemishes.” Truth be told she wasn’t exactly sure, but in the end nobody really was when it came to face masks. 

He nodded, his fingers ghosting across the left side of his face. “Do you think it could fix the scar?” It took her a minute before she realized he was joking and smothered her laughter. Sometimes his blunt, dry humor went over her head.

Sokka leaned across her lap to get closer to Zuko. “I dunno, Sparky, you could try it but personally I think the scar is a little bit of a mystery. Make you a little sexier.” 

“I second that statement.” She said, and they both started giggling as he flushed bright red. You could always see when Zuko blushed, and he blushed a lot. It had become a game between her and Sokka. Who could turn him purple first. They had money and a meal riding on it.

“Damn so close to that free dinner.” He said as he sat back down. “Well,” He tossed the rejuvenating mask in Zuko’s lap. “Let's get this over with. Suki give me whatever you want and tell me how to do this.” As always Sokka was ready to jump in head first. She laughed as she let herself and a reluctant Zuko be dragged to the bathroom.

\---

The face masks were on and starting to set. They had picked out Clueless as the movie to watch because Sokka likes young Paul Rudd. And all there of them were squashed on the small couch with Zuko in the middle. They had just passed the part of the movie with Cher and Dion having to drive on the highway and she sat up and stretched, her entire back cracking as she did it.

“You’re a freak of nature. You know that?” Sokka commented but the jealousy in his voice just made her smile.

She cracked her neck. “No more than you are. Is there any chance I can convince you guys to do your nails? Cause that would be really funny.” She stood up to get water and when she came back they had come to a decision.

“Sure, why not. We already have face masks and are watching some chick flicks.” She rolled her eyes at Sokka’s comment, but still got out the polish and lined it up on the table. “Zuko I think you should paint them black. Really embrace your inner emo.” He ruffled his hair. “Even more than you already do.”

Zuko glared at Sokka, but shrugged and looked at Suki. “I’ll let them be painted black if you do it. I don’t know how.” She smiled and moved to sit on the floor, pulling him down so his back was against the couch.

“I will gladly do that. Sokka can braid your hair or something.” He sighed in agreement and she grabbed the bottle and set his hands out. She froze when she saw the state of his nails. “I think we are going to start with cuticle care.” She ignored their confused muttering about what a cuticle was and how you are supposed to take care of it and get to work.

As she requested, Sokka was sitting up and running his hands through Zuko’s hair, carefully untangling any knots with his fingers. It took him a minute to relax with both of them touching him, but eventually he melts under Sokka’s gentle touches and the way she was massaging his hands. 

Of course the peace didn’t last, it never did when the three of them were together. “So Suki, what do we do now? Do we just watch the movie?”

She smiled as she moved to another one of Zuko’s nails, she knew they would secretly enjoy this. “Well normally we would gossip or have really deep conversations. You know the ones you only have late at night. Trauma bonding.”

Zuko cracked a smile. “Is that what it's called?” She nodded. “Well if you want to do that, I have plenty of trauma to bond over.” As he said it his head fell back, practically into Sokka’s lap.

She exchanged glances with him, wondering if they should press for more information. Zuko never talked about himself, he only mentioned his family when he was talking about his uncle. He had mentioned a sister once or twice, but hadn’t even said her name. But he was practically offering up the information now, and with him relaxed he might actually talk to them. 

Care not to be too forceful, she spoke up. “What do you mean?” Leave it open ended, he didn’t have to tell them anything if he didn’t want to. 

Zuko sighed and kept his eyes trained on the ceiling. She kept working on his hands and Sokka kept playing with his hair. “I don’t think you guys are leaving anytime soon, so I might as well tell you how I got the scar.”

Sokka’s voice was soft when he finally spoke again. “You don’t have to tell us anything you aren't comfortable with.” Zuko nodded, still looking away from them.

“I know. I want to tell you guys, I want somebody outside my family to know in case…” He let a breath. “I want to tell you.” 

She watched as Sokka started to separate his hair for whatever intricate design he was going to do. She tapped his knee so he would look at her, she nodded encouragingly. Hopefully it was enough to tell him that no matter what it was, they wouldn't judge him or leave him. 

“It happened when I was thirteen,” His voice was already rough like he was going to cry. “I um-I made my father mad. He said I disrespected him by interrupting an important dinner of his. My mom she,, she tried to make him stop, but once his friends left there was no stopping him. He was furious, saying I needed to learn some respect because I am not an adult. I am a child and I should only speak when spoken to.” There were tears in his eyes. “I begged him, I got on my knees and begged for forgiveness, but he just told me I was weak. My mom and my sister were there in the room, she tried to stop him but he threw a lit candle at her. I guess- I guess seeing how scared they were of the fire gave him an idea. He grabbed another candle and he-he held me down…” Sokka stopped playing with his hair to wrap his arms around Zuko as best he could. “He held me down and dumped the hot wax on me. It wasn’t the first time he had burned me, he liked fire, but he wouldn’t stop this time. He said he wanted it to be permanent so I never forgot my place.”

He took a deep breath to steady himself. “Azula was screaming the entire time, she never screamed and never cried, she was the perfect child. It really messed her up I think, nothing was ever the same after that. Once he was done my mom called my Uncle Iroh, she knew I couldn’t stay in the house and my father didn’t want me there. That night Uncle picked me up and took me to the hospital, they said they were sorry but the wax had cooled on my skin, there was only so much they could do.”

Enough was enough, she put down the tool and pulled Zuko into her arms. Sokka quickly got down and joined in the hug until he was sandwiched between them. She honestly wasn’t sure if she could hear the rest of the story, her heart was already broken in her chest.

Zuko wiped his eyes. “You know what the worst part is. After they told me hearing would be compromised and that I wouldn’t ever be able to fully open my eye again… I asked Uncle to take me home.” Something that could have been a sob escaped from him and they held on tighter. “I thought I deserved it for interrupting his dinner. I wanted to go home and apologize again. Uncle,, he didn’t take me home, I didn't go home again until I was sixteen.” 

Before she could get a word out, Sokka had Zuko’s face between his hands and was so close their forehead were almost touching. “You do not deserve what happened to you. Nobody deserved that, especially not a child. Now if you don’t mind, we need his address. Me and Suki are gonna go commit a war crime.”

Zuko let out a wet laugh and wrapped his arms around both of them. “Thank you, Sokka, but there's no need to commit a war crime in my honor.”

“Are you sure?” You could tell by her voice alone she had been crying, they all had. “Because I am totally down to murder him. I have the skills and Sokka has the muscle. We will take him down so fast.” He smiled kindly at her and shook his head. “Fine, we won’t do it this time, but Sokka is right. You didn’t deserve that. You deserve so much good in the world Zuko and if you weren’t gay I would kiss you right now.”

He laughed again. “You can kiss Sokka, I don’t need it.” His voice went sad again. “I just need you guys to stay, you're my only family left besides Iroh.”

Sokka smiled at him and ruffled his hair. “Of course we are staying, Sparky. You’re my family too.”

“And mine.” She added. They stayed there for a long time just holding onto each other, pull comfort from the others nearness. “Now, how about we take the face masks off and then we can keep trauma bonding.” 

They all slowly went to their feet, reluctant to let go of each other and made their way to the bathroom. “I think I’m done with trauma bonding for tonight, we can resume tomorrow. I vote we all go cuddle on the couch and put on another cheesy movie.” Her and Zuko seconded that, and he didn’t even protest the cuddling.

That's how they fell asleep that night. Sokka stretched out on the couch with his head on Zuko’s chest. She fell asleep on top of both of them with her feet kicked up over the back of the couch using Sokka’s stomach as a pillow. The Breakfast Club was playing in the background since neither of them had seen it before. They all woke up with various aches and pains, but the pure contentment and joy she felt when she looked at them was something she has never experienced before. She didn’t know she could love friends this deeply or have her ‘chosen family’, but meeting them had proved her wrong. That made the aches and pains worth it. 

**Author's Note:**

> as always comments are forever appreciated and thank you for reading


End file.
